18 réponses à ce sujet

[DeinonSlayer]

We're told that Element Zero is very rare, that it's produced when a star with planets goes supernova, at least partially converting the orbiting planets into the substance, and then has to either be harvested from the vicinity of a neutron star (which is extremely difficult) or found among material which is blown out of the system (which is extremely rare).

So how is it that every single enemy you run into has mass-accelerator based weaponry (eezo) and kinetic barriers (more eezo) if the stuff is so rare? Every single ship, every shuttle, every air car, and presumably every floor plate which produces artificial gravity makes use of the stuff. It's even in Traynor's toothbrush. Wouldn't conventional gunpowder-based weaponry still be useful, especially since the principle advantage of eezo weaponry went out the window with the introduction of thermal clips? Wouldn't we see a lot more enemies (especially low-end mercs) limited to ballistic armor with no kinetic barriers? Cerberus in ME3 did this with their run-of-the-mill ivory mooks, which seemed more realistic, I'm just wondering if we'll see more conventional weaponry or armor where kinetic barriers are expensive but optional in future titles.

I imagine post-Destroy tere would be no shortage of eezo for the galaxy to make use of, of course...

[shodiswe]

very little Eezo is required, I'm guessing.

[shodiswe]

As for gunpowderguns, even they would be made stroger with a correctly applied masseffect field.

What the field does accordign to fiction is that ir reduses the mass of the matter beign accelerated.

In essense the force applied to a much smaller mass creates greater acceleration.
Once the projectile leaves the field the mass of the projectile returns to normal but the speed remains the same.

Meaning you created kinetic energy by applying a mass effect field durign the energytransferprocess.

One coudl even say that it created energy. It's unknown how much energy is consumed to supply the mass effect field. It coudl be that it cancels each other out but that it's merely easier power a projectile this way. Also, it would theoreticaly allow a much smaller kickback for the gun making a more powerful gun easier to handle.

Just making the kickback one third that of what it would be otherwise would be a huge gain.

Modifié par shodiswe, 08 février 2014 - 06:56 .

[shodiswe]

It's after all a Sci-fi material with magic like properties.

[CrutchCricket]

It's rare but it's ubiquitous...

Maybe it's another thing the writers forgot.

[R0gueHunt3R]

For all we know, an absolutely negligible amount may be needed for its effect. And since it isn't expended, at least as far as I know, you would not really have to worry about constantly replenishing it.

[shodiswe]

It's effect isn't gained through consuming it but rather by running an electric current through it.
It isn't consumed in the same manner crude oil is consumed.

It's more like Platina or something that can be used as a catalyst to get reactions going without consuming the catalyst.

Modifié par shodiswe, 08 février 2014 - 07:13 .

[R0gueHunt3R]

No, I mean that it may "leak". Alternatively, it may degrade over time, in much the same way that nuclear material does.

Modifié par R0gueHunt3R, 08 février 2014 - 07:18 .

[Derpy]

Please excuse me while I swim in my eezo pool next to my eezo house with a lot of eezo grass in a country completely made of eezo that is on a planet of pure eezo in a galaxy of eezo.

[cap and gown]

I found that the most likely planets to have eezo on them when mining in ME2 were garden worlds, either currently, or in the past. So perhaps the original Leviathans found some and learned how to use it, then the debris from their ships was left behind on worlds when the Reapers wiped them out. Over the course of eons, a reaper destroyer here and there would die on some habitable world while harvesting, leaving more eezo to be found by later civilizations. Anyway, I just thought it was interesting that I could just look at a planet a see that it was a good candidate for having eezo.

[Dean_the_Young]

According to the backstory, e-zero is also artificially producible. E-zero generation on Mars from the Prothean ruins is where Humanity got its initial stock.

So e-zero is both naturally occurring and synthesizable. It's rare enough that it's cost-effective to mine for it, but prevalent enough that it's not a monoplizable resource.

[Evil]

Here's a link that might prove interesting to you guys.
only-logical.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/physics-of-mass-effect.html

As mentioned by shodiswe, Eezo is a catalyst, not a fuel source, the only thing consumed when generating a mass effect field is electricity, which can be generated in whatever manner you see fit.

As the above link mentioned, a mass effect field generator is directly comparable to an electromagnet.

That's significant since we already know that electromagnets can be somewhat costly to make, but once made only require an electrical current to function, making them more than worth the initial cost to manufacture, given their utility.

One can easily imagine eezo devices being similar in nature in terms of manufacturing economics.

Modifié par Evil Mastered, 08 février 2014 - 07:37 .

[Han Shot First]

shodiswe wrote...

very little Eezo is required, I'm guessing.

That would be my guess as well. Perhaps things like Traynor's toothbrush or personal firearms only require a few grains of the stuff. Drive cores of course would require much more.

[Arisugawa]

It depends highly on your definition of rare.

It seems common to us because of how sought after it is. Because of that, corporations go out of their way to find it and then mine it.

But consider it this way: gold is considered rare to our contemporary culture. But how rare is it? How can it be considered rare when we see so much of it?

It's because of the ratio of gold to other elements. For example, nitrogen or hydrogen.

So, say you have a cluster and within that cluster are 200 known planets. If only 15 of those planets contain Element Zero, that is still pretty rare when you consider the sheer amount of other elements you are likely to find on the remaining 185. What are the quantities of Hydrogen, Xenon, Argon, Nickel, Iron, Tungsten, etc, that you are going to be able to mine on those other worlds?

Element Zero, available on a sparce 15 of them, is priceless by comparsion. And worlds like Thessia where it is available in large quantities would be even more rare.

[R0gueHunt3R]

Evil Mastered wrote...

As mentioned by shodiswe, Eezo is a catalyst, not a fuel source, the only thing consumed when generating a mass effect field is electricity, which can be generated in whatever manner you see fit.

I was not saying that it was a fuel source, I was wondering whether or not it had an infinite useful lifespan.

Let me clarify: a battery is not "consumed" with use, but it only has a limited number of recharge cycles before it becomes little more than a paperweight. The same thing might happen with Eezo; it can only be used so many times before the Eezo core must be replaced.

Modifié par R0gueHunt3R, 08 février 2014 - 08:25 .

[Han Shot First]

R0gueHunt3R wrote...

Evil Mastered wrote...

As mentioned by shodiswe, Eezo is a catalyst, not a fuel source, the only thing consumed when generating a mass effect field is electricity, which can be generated in whatever manner you see fit.

I was not saying that it was a fuel source, I was wondering whether or not it had an infinite useful lifespan.

Let me clarify: a battery is not "consumed" with use, but it only has a limited number of recharge cycles before it becomes little more than a paperweight. The same thing might happen with Eezo; it can only be used so many times before the Eezo core must be replaced.

Even if eezo cores on starships 'burn out' however, it doesn't necessarily mean that the eezo in personal weapons or armor would. Space travel might put a lot more stress on the eezo than the operating mechanisms of a rifle. Its possible at least that technology a lot less complicated than star ship drive cores could last much longer.

[R0gueHunt3R]

Well, come to think of it, the refined Eezo that humanity found on Mars was at least 50,000 years old, so we know for a fact that it does not deteriorate overtime if left in storage (at least not over periods that are not ridiculously long). The question of whether or not it deteriorates with use is still open, though.

[katamuro]

Well considering how long nuclear reactors can work before a refuel is needed then I would probably consider at least similar life-cycle to eezo especially since its not being actively used like the nuclear fuel. Plus If you think about it most of the current stars right now are second generation including the sun and that means they formed from the remnants of the previous stars that went supernova. the only way to produce heavy elements like iron, lead, uranium is by having the star to do it and then throw out during a supernova. So eezo while rare is probably present in many systems and only a few have quantities sufficient for mining. And considering our galaxy has something like 250 billion stars I wouldnt worry about it running out.

[Wulfram]

Eezo is basically what fossil fuels are today, as far as the role it plays in the Galaxy, scarce mostly because it's in demand, rather than because it's incredibly uncommon. Tough it probably is very rare as a proportion of the mass of the galaxy, but there's a lot of galaxy to find it in, and galactic civilisation is pretty devoted to find it.

And we make toothbrushes out of plastic made from fossil fuels, just to complete the similarity.